By A Thread
by An Amber Pen
Summary: Sarah's whole world just got turned on its ear. She's lost in another dimension and is all alone on the perilous streets of Megakat City. Little does she know that she's about to cross paths with two guys who could help her out if she could just connect the dots. There's just one little problem: keeping secrets won't help her get home. Rated T for later chapters.
1. Falling Through A Wormhole

**(Author's Note: The main character's original dimension does not have the SWAT Kats cartoon, so there is no reference point for her to fall back on in this story. *horrified gasp* I know, it's so sad. ;P)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own SWAT Kats; that franchise belongs to Hanna-Barbera. The OC's and the plot are mine.**

By A Thread

Chapter 1

*5 miles west of Carova Beach, North Carolina; ½ mile below the Department Of Energy relay station*

Everything was ready. The next set of experiments was set to begin.

Dr. Cameron Kane, the head of the operation, thought that today would turn out to be lucky. He couldn't say why, but he had a gut feeling that all of their hard work on the Temporal Dimensional Vortex Project, codenamed "Charybdis", would come to fruition. Dr. Kane and all of his coworkers had shed blood, sweat and tears over this project for the past year, and they were just counting the days until they saw success. The last experiment had failed very badly and had actually caused a power outage. As luck would have it, the higher ups were able to blame it on the storm that had been raging at the time. However, they had also seen significantly favorable readings. And to think, it was all due to a simple polarity change in one of the power couplings.

The teams had all made their own adjustments so that the conditions were similar to last time with a few tweaks, including a polarity change in another coupling so that it was all balanced out. Now it was time to test it out.

Dr. Kane looked to his control room officers and said, "Systems check." He wanted to make sure that everything was in perfect working order. One by one, the different stations sounded off.

"Power systems, check."

"Flux capacitor, check."

"Quantum wave amplifier, check."

"Iris generator, check."

"Cross-beam focusers, check."

Dr. Kane nodded and squared his shoulders as he looked out the window to the giant indoor testing area. They all waited on him to give the green light.

"Execute," he commanded.

The whole facility became a flurry of activity as the separate systems were activated. Soon, a lot of electricity started bursting through the testing area as the cross-beam focusers lined up with each other to meet in the middle of the target zone.

A man at one station announced, "Focus beam fusion in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1."

The four tendrils of electricity met in a blinding flash that rapidly coalesced into a swirling maelstrom of dark purple clouds. It made a vast growling, sucking noise like a tornado and a whirlpool combined into one which, for all intents and purposes, gave the same impression as the project's namesake, Charybdis; the famously gigantic sea monster from _The Iliad_ that swallowed whole ships in its need to satisfy an endless hunger. It was at once the most exhilarating and the most forbidding thing that any member of the project had ever witnessed. Dr. Kane couldn't help but stare into that seemingly endless swirling depth.

At some point, he came back to himself and called out, "Confirm stability."

The control panel operators picked their jaws up off the floor long enough to scan their environmental output readings and answered, "All systems running at optimum. Environmental scanners are all green from here. Vortex stability is confirmed."

Dr. Kane reached for the intercom button and spoke into the microphone. "Attention, everyone. A stable vortex has been achieved! The project is a success!" There were whoops and shouts and cries of celebration all across the board as everyone went completely insane with euphoria. The control room was no different as everyone exchanged hugs and hi-fives. Dr. Kane could feel himself grinning like a fool, but he didn't care. After several setbacks, all their hard work had finally paid off. They had made history today.

Once some of the cheering had died down, one of his officers spoke up. "It's still reading as stable, Dr. Everything is holding steady. Sir, do you want to send one of the preliminary probes in to check it out?" Dr. Kane glanced at the younger man who had spoken, then his gaze went back to the vortex. Indeed, it was still the same as a moment ago to his mortal eye.

At first, he thought about saying no and calling it a day so everyone could pop open the champagne, so to speak.

But then he thought, _Why not? What are the odds that we'll touch on this particular portal again? We might as well get as much data as we can while the opportunity still knocks. It will certainly give us a head-start on refining our targeting parameters._

Dr. Kane nodded, and said, "Alright, have one of the teams get a probe down there. We'll send it through and test the signal."

The officer nodded. His eyes were still bugging out from his head as he got on the intercom with the mechanical station. "Engineering Team 3," he called, "Engineering Team 3, suit up and get a probe prepped. We're going to test the signal." A tinny voice came through the speaker and acknowledged the command.

Within minutes, the five members of Engineering Team 3 were in environment suits as a precaution and were wheeling in a remote-control robot claw that was holding the data probe. Attached to the robot was a steel-wrapped fiber-optic cable with a remote-release hook. Engineer 2 punched in the activation codes for the probe while Engineer 1 attached the robot to a cable on an anchored winch they had placed at the back of the testing area. The others stood by while Engineers 4 and 5 ran a full systems check on the probe once it was on.

"Probe is fully functional, sir. We are ready to proceed," Engineer 4 announced over his headset radio.

The head scientist nodded and spoke into the microphone, "Very good. Begin data retrieval procedure."

The guy handling the remote control, Engineer 3, guided the robot towards the opening. It was quickly sucked in by the vortex's gravitational pull until the cable snapped taut. All five people in the room reflexively stepped back.

"Releasing probe," announced Engineer 3, "in 3...2...1." He pressed a button on the control, and a little light blipped. "Down the hatch," the man said. A few of those who heard him chuckled.

"Probe is through and has made impact," said Engineer 5 from her control panel. After a few minutes, they were able to determine that the probe's location had the same atmosphere and gravity as Earth. The temperature seemed to be slightly higher, but the difference was well within human tolerance.

Dr. Kane was beside himself. He couldn't believe their luck! Not only did they have a stable vortex, but they also had what could be an alternate Earth. "Well, I think we can call it day, people," he said. There wasn't much more to be done until they could get the funds necessary to purchase a fully-equipped rover like NASA was using for space missions. Of course, with today's results, Dr. Kane was confident that it wouldn't be difficult. He redirected his attention to the engineers on the floor. Activating the microphone again, he ordered, "Alright, we're packing in. Retract the robot and get ready to set the system to autopilot. Job well done, everybody."

There were some residual cheers as everyone got ready to transfer their stations to an automatic monitoring system. Engineering Team 3 got down to retrieving their robotic arm and flipped the switch on the winch. With a faint metallic groan, it began to rewind the cable.

Suddenly, a mechanical whine started up from the winch. The five engineers looked at it in concern until smoke began rising from it and the whine rose painfully in pitch. Engineer 3 ran over to try and shut it off. Just as he touched the handle, a loud bang and a shower of sparks erupted from the machine. The engineer tried to shield his face as the whole cable unwound like the reel of a fishing pole. When the cable finally ran out, it snapped taut with a resounding 'Whap!' The whole mounting bracket jerked forward a few inches with a metallic groan.

Everybody quickly stepped free and clear of the winch. A few seconds passed until there was almost total silence in the testing area. No one dared to get closer even though the bolts holding it in place were still holding fast. Hardly anybody drew breath for a moment.

Engineer 4 noticed Engineer 5 was peeking over the top of the control panel that monitored the probe. Shaking his head, he hissed, "Number 5, get out from behind there. It's fine."

**CLANG!**

The winch suddenly broke loose and flew towards the mouth of the vortex, spinning wildly as it swung to the side. Engineer 5 dove out from behind the control panel just as the renegade winch careened into it with the force of a wrecking ball.

However, her right foot couldn't escape the equally-wild cable. It snared her just below the ankle, knocking her to the floor and yanking her several feet towards the vortex. Everyone erupted into a panicked frenzy. Engineer 5's foot came loose after a second, but it was already too late. The vortex's gravitational field had caught her and quickly pulled her the rest of the way. The young woman screamed as the swirling walls of the dimensional tunnel swallowed her.

At the same time, the winch-turned-wrecking-ball had flown directly into one of the cross-beam focusers and smashed it to pieces. Alarms blared everywhere, but everyone's attention was already focused intently on the disaster before them. The mouth of the vortex seemed to warp before their eyes, bending into an irregular shape. The badly damaged winch somehow became wedged into the framework of the iris generator surrounding the vortex. Many crucial systems were now short-circuiting, and red lights were popping up all across the board.

Then, in the blink of an eye, everything shut down. All the power in the facility was abruptly cut off. With nothing to keep it there, the vortex rapidly constricted and disappeared from the testing area unseen.

The winch and its severed cable dropped to the ground with a metallic thunk as the facility's emergency lights came on. A stunned silence had overcome the entire building.

After a while, people went off to their respective areas to do damage control. Dr. Kane was soon left alone in the main control room. He continued to stare through the window at the far wall of the testing area even though he wasn't really looking at anything. His gaze was turned inward, going over every detail of what had just transpired. As Dr. Kane's mind caught up with the present, he realized that today's events would likely become one of many nails yet to be pounded into the project's coffin.

With that thought came a crushing despair. _All of that time, and all of that hard work; gone. Just like that poor woman. The efforts of thousands of people reduced to ashes by a cable winch._

Someone cleared their throat behind him. Dr. Kane quickly brought his emotions to heel as he turned to face the person requesting his attention. It was one of his control officers, but the man also worked as an attaché to one of the local company representatives. "Sir, shall I start drawing up the report?"

The director's mind blanked for a second, then he replied, "Yes, get started on it. Also, make a note that we'll immediately begin conducting an investigation to make sure that winch was properly mounted. We need to figure out just where we went wrong with this. Someone had to have thought that a gravitational field could be a factor."

"Someone did, sir."

Dr. Kane calmly raised an eyebrow. "Who was it?"

The man's expression was ironic as he answered, "The engineer who fell into the vortex. She submitted a memo to one of the theoretical physics teams two weeks ago. She expressed concern over the possibility that the vortex could generate a gravitational force of its own."

"And what did they say?"

"Apparently they had a get-together with a couple other teams and came to the conclusion that it shouldn't be a cause for concern."

Dr. Kane couldn't help but snort derisively. "Judging by today, I'd say someone forgot to double-check their math," he said with a hint of anger. He turned his head back to the window and set his gaze on the far wall once again. A few seconds passed in silence before Dr. Kane asked levelly, "Who was she?"

The control officer/attaché brought up a folder on his tablet and found the answer after a minute. "Sarah Majkowski, 24, graduated '_magna cum laude'_ from Caltech two years ago."

A sigh of regret escaped Dr. Kane. "Damn shame," he said softly.

* * *

*Meanwhile, inside the vortex…*

Sarah was in unbelievable pain. Almost as soon as she entered the vortex, her skin had started itching. Within seconds, it had developed into a fierce burning sensation throughout her body. As she raced through the winding curves of the vortex's path, she could feel her muscles stretching in a way that was just not right. Sarah felt like her head was being split into pieces. Her extremities had become completely numb as she continued to thrash helplessly against the pain. She was just barely aware of her environment suit tearing away in places. Something was putting increasing pressure on her lower back as well.

Those agonizing few moments felt like hours to Sarah. The roar of the vortex tunnel seemed to completely inhabit her mind as its walls churned in a miasma of purple clouds. The air in the vortex, if it was indeed air, overpowered her nose with the sharp tang of ozone.

Abruptly, she was tossed out of the vortex and landed hard on something. There was the faintest sensation of something soft cushioning her, but Sarah was beyond any and all awareness except for the fact that the pain had stopped.

As the vortex closed behind her, Sarah succumbed willingly to the peaceful numbness that crept upon her now.

**(Okay, here it is! Chapter 1 of my first fan fiction. I welcome any reviews and constructive criticism you may have. There is no need to be gentle, trust me. I can handle it. But if you like it, that would be nice to hear, too. Also, please let me know what you think of the title. Thanks!)**


	2. On the Other Side

**(Oh my God! Two positive reviews in the first five hours that this is up?! *squeal*. . . Ahem. *stone face* Right, moving on. My effervescent thanks to Theivius Authorius for writing that wonderfully encouraging review, and that goes ditto for everyone who has reviewed, followed, and faved this so far. Seeing this kind of response has made staying up until 4 A.M. on a church Sunday finishing that first chapter ****_SO_**** worth it. Anyways, I hope you like this next installment. Disclaimer: SWAT Kats belongs to Hanna-Barbera. I only own the plot and the OC's. A'ight then, read on.)**

By A Thread

Chapter 2: On the Other Side

*Megakat City*

Streetlights combated the thick shadows that tried to engulf the city. It was cool, and humidity filled the air with a light mist that formed halos around each light source. A clock tower in the heart of the city chimed eleven times beneath the rumble of thunder. Right after the bells quieted, the sound of three supersonic engines pierced the thick air as the sleek machine they powered flew over the buildings.

The black jet screamed through the night sky. Its red markings were visible even in the pitch black of the stormy dark, and its afterburners blazed pale blue. Great bolts of lightning forked through the thick clouds like magnesium flares, threatening to blind the two kats inside. Besides the sound of the engine, it was mostly silent in the cockpit until the cinnamon tom in back spoke up.

"It looks like we're in for another boomer tonight, T-Bone." The tom was dressed in a blue flight suit with a red harness. He also sported black fingerless gloves as well as a blue-and-red flight helmet. A black bandana covered his head and hid the upper half of his face.

The creamy, brown-striped tabby in front turned around to look at his gunner. "Yeah, I think you might be right, Razor. It's sure been one active monsoon season," he replied. The pilot was dressed similarly to Razor, except his flight suit had black lapels and short sleeves that showed off his striped, muscular arms.

They flew through the dark in quiet for a moment until something blipped on the radar. "Hey, T-Bone," Razor said, "I'm picking up some weird energy readings on the south side of the city, near the edge of Megakat City National Park."

"We're there," the pilot replied, banking the jet to the left and gunning the engine. "Can you tell what it is from here?"

Razor scanned his readings before answering cautiously, "I could be wrong, but it looks an awful lot like one of the Pastmaster's time vortexes."

"Crud!" T-Bone groaned. "In that case, buddy, I really hope you're wrong."

"That makes two of us, Hotshot," Razor mumbled.

The two toms had just reached the outskirts of the city when the storm finally opened up. Rain blanketed the cockpit, making it almost impossible for the burly tabby to see. "Have you still got a lock on that signal, Razor?" asked T-Bone.

Razor had kept an eye on the radar, and the blip was still showing clearly. "It should be right up-" he began. In that instant, the blip disappeared. "Wait—what happened?!" the gunner exclaimed. "It's gone!"

"Gone?" T-Bone put the jet's VTOL engines in hover mode and turned to look incredulously at his partner. "How can it be gone? I thought you had a clear lock on it, Sureshot."

Razor grimaced. "I _did_, and it should be right there in front of us," he growled, pointing forward for emphasis.

T-Bone spared a forward glance at the empty space in front of them before commenting drily, "This reminds of that time we almost wound up rescuing a bunch of bats instead of that reporter, Ann Gora."

Razor bristled a bit at the jab. "Maybe so, but this wasn't just a big heat signature. This was a powerful energy fluctuation across multiple wavelengths! My radar doesn't lie," he said a little defensively.

T-Bone barely noticed Razor's tone and asked, "Well, is your radar picking up anything else we need to check out here? Or can we head back to the hangar?"

Razor let go of his annoyance and checked the readout in front of him. "Well, there's nothing left of the first blip, but I'm picking up some faint readings down on the ground."

"I can't land the Turbokat in those trees," T-Bone informed him, referring to the jet by its name. "And you're not going down on the winch, not with this weather." Despite the Turbokat's steady hover, the wind was still whipping the rain hard against the cockpit and made it difficult to see.

The cinnamon tom replied, "And we can't use the dimensional radar, either. I don't want to risk it getting hit by lightning again."

T-Bone shuddered. "Yeah, once was enough. Let's not push it," the pilot groaned.

"Roger," Razor said, nodding his head. "In any case, whatever's down there isn't moving, and I'm not picking up any life-signs. I'll drop a locator beacon for now."

T-Bone gave a cocky smile. "Affirmative. First thing tomorrow, we'll come back for a closer look."

"Copy that." Razor dropped the activated beacon, and the two vigilantes took off once more to return to their secret hangar.

A faint heat signature flickered onto the radar screen. Razor caught it from the corner of his eye, but it went out before he could get a proper look at it. The tom shook his head and thought, _Probably just a small animal._

The cinnamon tom had a niggling suspicion and almost wanted to ask to turn back, but he knew that T-Bone's earlier assessment was right. There was no way to safely investigate the site in this weather. So, Razor decided to let the issue rest until tomorrow when they came back. It would do neither of them any good to speculate tonight.

_Whatever it was I picked up on the radar, we'll deal with it_, the gunner reassured himself.

* * *

The very first thing Sarah became aware of when she came to was a splitting headache.

Groaning aloud, she kept her eyes closed and gritted her teeth against the pain. It was like someone had successfully driven an ice-pick right between her eyes. She was too warm and sweating into her clothes under the layers of shielding in the environment suit. Everything about her body felt . . . weird.

A wave of nausea hit Sarah and prompted her to seek fresh oxygen. Her hands felt partially numb, but she managed to wrap them around her head covering and slip it off along with the empty oxygen mask. After tossing that aside and rolling onto her back, Sarah unzipped her suit and just lay there breathing slowly. Many smells were making their way to her nose, but she didn't bother naming them. Sarah just took a moment to appreciate the fact that she was alive.

Once she got the nausea under control, Sarah tried opening her eyes. She winced as the light nearly blinded her, so she kept them narrowed to slits until her vision could adjust. Sounds were starting to register as well, such as the chirping of birds and the buzzing of insects.

But the headache really was making things difficult. _Ugh. Either I hit my head, or falling through that vortex has caused me permanent brain damage._

Sarah scoffed at the thought and felt her ear flick in annoyance. _Hold the phone!_ she thought in alarm, all fogginess abruptly gone from her head. _My ear flicked? Since when does my ear move like that?_

Sarah raised her hand to brush it against the side of her head, and to her consternation her ear was not where it should be. All she felt there was fur.

Another noise from nearby made her ear flick again, allowing her to locate it closer to the top of her head. Sarah curiously ran her fingers over the fuzzy, triangular appendage. At that moment, she also noticed that she could only feel _four_ fingers.

Sarah forced her eyes fully open, blinking against the blurry lights, and held her hands out in front of her face. When they finally came into focus, she gasped.

The gloves she had been wearing had been ripped away at some point, revealing that her hands only had three fingers and a thumb. It was like her pinky had disappeared. To top it off, her hands were also covered in fur! Her fingers were orange-gold while the main part of her hand was a dark coffee brown. The tips of her fingers and the palm of her hand had soft black pads like an animal's paw.

Sarah stared at her hands for a moment. They were damp for some reason, and drops of moisture clung to the fur like dew on grass. "What the—" She cut off her sentence when she felt the way her mouth moved.

Putting her hands to her face, Sarah took stock of her new metamorphosis. Her whole jaw felt so much longer. Her nose could probably be considered a muzzle now, and the sensitive whiskers on either side of it twitched when she touched them. The freakiest part had to be the teeth, though. When Sarah ran her flat, rough tongue over her teeth, she could hardly believe that she had actual fangs sticking out from her upper and lower jaws. They were maybe an inch long, thin, and needle sharp.

"What the hell happened to me?" Sarah asked herself. She cast her eyes around looking for any clues and noticed that she was in a wooded area. There were dapples of orange-gold light seeping through the leafy canopy above.

As she tried to sit up, Sarah finally noticed something attached to her lower back. She quickly freed her torso from the badly torn environment suit. Whatever had been bunched up against her rear end came free and seemed to move of its own volition. Sarah could feel it as it swung behind her and thought disbelievingly, _Oh, dear God, don't tell me I grew a tail, too!_ She dared a look over her shoulder and saw the long, smooth, striped tail swishing back and forth. She could feel the light impact it made as it thumped against the ground.

Out of curiosity, Sarah tried to control the tail, but this quickly proved considerably more difficult than she would have thought. She had no idea how to keep it still. Even when she caught the end of it with her hand, it slipped out of her grasp as if it were playing with her. Sarah realized how ridiculous it was to be sitting here in another dimension literally chasing her tail. She chuckled quietly and gave up on controlling her tail for now. At least the hole it had made in her leather pants wasn't large enough to reveal anything.

Sighing in resignation, the young engineer started to stand up but was forced back down to the ground when a sharp twinge of pain came from her feet. When she looked down at them, Sarah threw up her hands and snorted as if to say, 'Of course.'

Sticking out from gaping holes in her running sneakers were three large, orange-gold toes also tipped with curved black claws. The rest of her feet were being squeezed to death by what remained of her footwear, so she impatiently yanked them off.

Sarah rose unsteadily to her feet while her headache continued to pound steadily behind her eyes. She rubbed them briefly with the heels of her hands and started to walk towards the tiny clearing just a few feet ahead.

When she reached it, Sarah gasped at the sight before her. The robotic arm—or what was left of it—lay in pieces in a crater at the opposite edge of the ten-foot oval clearing. The probe was lying just a few feet away from it. Sarah picked her way towards the latter, being mindful of any metal fragments that might cut her, and kneeled down to look at it. While the robotic arm was clearly beyond repair, there was the possibility that something could be salvaged from the probe.

But, as soon as she turned the probe over in her hands, it became clear that was a fool's errand. The unfortunate probe's steel cage had buckled in, allowing something to shear off a good-sized chunk of the processing center. Sarah could see the badly damaged chip among the exposed guts of the probe. Almost every wire she could see was blackened, leading her to believe that the probe's main chip had short-circuited itself after sustaining damage. Shorted-out wires could be difficult, but corrupted data was next to impossible to fix without proper equipment.

Sarah sighed heavily and unceremoniously dropped the now-useless probe. She shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her enlarged nose, trying to alleviate her pounding headache. Just as Sarah opened them again, she noticed something she hadn't before.

A small red-and-blue object lay just at the edge of the clearing. There was a small green LED light blinking on top. It looked like a beacon of some sort, but Sarah wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

It took a moment for her aching brain to catch up. But when it did, Sarah leapt to the conclusion that someone else had already been here and planned to return. _I need to get out of here_, she thought immediately. The urge to simply be _away_ had come on quite strongly, and at the moment, Sarah's head and gut were both in agreement. She looked around for a way out and saw the multitude of trees surrounding the clearing. The idea of climbing one and using the height advantage to get her bearings popped into Sarah's thoughts.

She picked out a tall tree at the edge of the grassy clearing. Grabbing the first branch in reach, she hauled herself up and started to climb. Her claws had an immediate effect, digging into the tree bark and giving her a more secure foothold. It was an odd sensation, but not an uncomfortable one. The claws in her fingers instinctively came out as she reached for the next branch. They were longer than her toe-claws, but just as sharp. Sarah looks at them and flexes her fingers experimentally. They retract and extend with no effort and barely a sound. The young engineer smirked to herself then continued on her climb.

After a surprisingly short amount of time, Sarah reached a place above the tree line where she could see for miles around. A beam of light directly to her left caused Sarah to cry out and forced her to shield her eyes while her headache took vengeance on the front of her brain. Once the pounding was reduced again, Sarah lowered her hand to look around. When she did, she almost managed to forget about her headache and everything else with it.

The bright yellow sun was set low on the horizon and had turned the sky a beautiful shade of gold with fiery bands of orange and pink sweeping towards the opposite horizon. The puffy clouds in the sky had turned a shade of grayish-blue and were lined with a bright rosy pink where the sun's rays touched it. As Sarah's gaze traveled away from the gilded scene, it settled on several rectangles of reflected gold not too far away.

Her eyes widened as she realized she was staring at the outline of a city! Numerous skyscrapers dotted the space above the treeline. One building in particular stood above them all like a sentinel tower. And judging by their size, they couldn't be more than a mile or two away. There was a brisk wind blowing towards the city, but even so she could make out the muffled sounds of traffic and sirens.

Sarah looked back towards the sun. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to calculate how much time she had before sunset, but then she realized it was just as likely to be sunrise at this point. Snorting at the slowness of her brain, Sarah thought out her options thoroughly this time.

Only two viable ones presented themselves. She could stay where she was and wait for whoever placed that beacon to come back and find her, but that ran the risk of bringing up some very complicated questions that Sarah wasn't sure she was even capable of answering. Not to mention, there was the risk of being imprisoned, interrogated, and possibly institutionalized. Sarah was 100% certain that she would be dealing with an advanced sentient race in this dimension. Whether or not they would be sympathetic to her plight was a whole other can of worms.

Her second option was to make a run for the city and civilization at the risk of encountering anything else that was dangerous in the woods. Sarah thought about it for a moment and realized that her only sensible choice was to run for it. She had a deep feeling in her gut that she would be in this place for a long time, and she needed to get the lay of the land.

So, with her mind made up, Sarah climbed back down to the ground and began a steady jog in the direction of the city. With any luck, it would bring her some small measure of salvation.

* * *

T-Bone held the Turbokat steady as Razor descended towards the beacon on the winch cable. It was currently 7:10 AM, and both toms were already thinking of what may have transpired while they waited for last night's weather to clear.

As he was reeled beneath the canopy, Razor immediately spotted evidence of the activity he had spotted on his radar. In the tiny clearing where he had placed the locator beacon was what appeared to be a smashed-up machine of some kind. Once his feet touched the ground, Razor went a little closer to investigate. As he picked his way through the debris, the lithe tom was able to determine that he was looking at the remains of a large robotic arm. Nearby lay a badly done-in spherical object encased in its own metallic exoskeleton.

Razor reached up to hit the button on his helmet radio. "T-Bone, do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, partner. See anything down there?"

"Affirmative," Razor stated. "There's a badly damaged robotic arm as well as something I'm not sure how to identify yet."

T-Bone asked, "Do you want to take it back to the hangar and see if you can try to get anything from this stuff?"

"I think it's our best option for finding out what we're dealing with."

The pilot nodded to himself and said, "Roger. Lowering magnetic claw."

The magnetic claw they had built extended down from the jet and locked onto the largest portion of the robotic arm. As T-Bone began to lift it into the bomb bay of the jet, Razor went over the sphere and tucked it under his arm. Just as he was about to grab onto the cable that had lowered him, the tom spotted something on the ground.

There were faint footprints in the dirt of the clearing. The tracks led from the clearing to someplace ahead. Razor contacted T-Bone on his radio. "Heads up, pal. I've got tracks down here."

T-Bone was immediately on alert. "What kind of tracks, Razor?"

"Definitely a kat. They were barefoot," he said as he squatted down to look more closely, "and they were here very recently. An hour ago at most." Razor let his eyes travel towards the edge of the clearing where the tracks originated from. As he got up, he followed the tracks until he saw the pile of torn fabric a few feet into the trees. Next to it lay a full-face hood that housed an oxygen mask, and Razor also saw a pair of white sport sneakers with their toes shredded.

Razor reached up for his radio again. "Bad news, T-Bone. It looks like Megakat City's got an unexpected guest."

T-Bone cursed under his breath, then asked, "You're sure there was just one?"

Razor picked up the fabric with his free hand. It was very thick and coated in plastic, and he realized it must have been a hazmat suit. "Yeah, I'm sure. And, judging by the condition of this protective suit, they had a pretty rough ride." He released the remains of the suit and glanced again at the oxygen mask and shoes.

"Where do you think they might have gone, in either case?" There was an edge of concern in T-Bone's voice for both their visitor and any other kats they might come into contact with.

Razor looked at the tracks again and replied, "Well, as far as I can tell, our visitor took off in a hurry towards the city. At least, that would be the intelligent thing to do," he added as an afterthought.

"Right, but it's going to be tough to keep a lookout for something that may look like any other kat, though." T-Bone didn't sound particularly optimistic.

Razor was silent for a minute then tried to reassure his partner. "The best we can do is keep our eyes peeled, buddy. Something's bound to pop up sooner or later."

T-Bone snorted. "Yeah, sure. What's one more strange needle in this freaky haystack?" he said sarcastically.

Once Razor was back in the cockpit with the sphere tucked away in the bomb bay, the two masked toms made their way towards the city. Razor kept scanning his radar the whole way, trying to pick up anything that may have been traveling towards the city. Nothing blipped until they got to the suburbs, but it was still early on a Saturday morning. Katizens generally stayed home on weekends.

With a sigh, Razor conceded to the fact that they wouldn't find anything regarding their visitor for a while yet. He would have to take his own advice and keep his eyes peeled.

_With any luck, we'll find who and what we're looking for_, the gunner thought.

**(*whew* Okay, that was chapter 2. Not a whole lot of action, but I'm trying to set the stage for the next part. I will try to update at least once a month, but I'm not promising anything. Chapters will come when they are completed and no sooner. I hate doing anything halfway. Anyways, please review, fav, follow, or any combination thereof. Your thoughts are appreciated and considered.)**


	3. Weekend Warriors

**(Wow, I can't believe the kind of attention this is getting. Well, here's the next chapter. Disclaimer: I do not own SWAT Kats, Hanna-Barbera does. The plot and the OC are mine. A'ight then, read on and enjoy.)**

By A Thread

Chapter 3: Weekend Warriors

*Megakat City; outer southwest district*

Sarah stood staring across the street, listening to her stomach rumble, and cursing herself for being an idiot for what must have been the hundredth time that day.

She had made it out of the forest after about ten minutes of jogging and was able to slip between two backyard fences that were only a foot apart. Just as her bare feet touched the paved sidewalk, a black jet with red markings had flown overhead in the direction Sarah had just run from. Not much later, the same jet had flown back the way it came before banking sharply to the west.

Or, at least, what Sarah assumed to be west.

In any case, it confirmed that someone might already be searching for her. Sarah didn't dare look anyone in the eye for a solid half-hour after that.

Even when she reached the inner city limits, she didn't dare ask for directions to any place. Mercifully, there was no language barrier for her to overcome. Most everything she heard or saw written was in English. Sarah thanked her lucky stars for that, knowing the odds of this were astronomically thin. If she had needed to learn a whole new language, the jig would have been up.

Once Sarah managed to get over the constant urge to dig a foxhole and bury her head, she actually started to take in the sights. The downtown district that she found herself in looked historical with old red-brick buildings on either side of the street. Old-fashioned-looking lampposts lined the roads at the edges of the sidewalks. Storefronts sported glass windows painted with each shop's name while the city's denizens hustled to get started on their weekend. Sarah had come across a newspaper stand and had read the date, so she knew that today was Saturday, September 27th, 2013.

The people were the most interesting part to Sarah. Everyone was the same kind of cat-creature she was, but they came in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Yet, while they were so different, they acted almost identically to the humans in her home dimension. Despite the astounding similarities, Sarah still felt a big sense of culture-shock. Her wide eyes drank in everything there was to see like a little kid who'd wandered off into the candy aisle by herself.

It was a while before Sarah noticed that she was getting odd looks from a few cat-people. All of a sudden, the buffer zone that had formed between her and reality evaporated. Sarah had to force herself not to panic. While she didn't flat out run away, Sarah's footsteps were almost a jog as she turned from the cat-people that were ogling her and kept on walking. When she calmed down again, she shook her head at herself in reproach.

_Get it together, Sarah. You're supposed to be smart, so act like it. Step one is 'Don't get caught.'_

That had been around 8:30 in the morning. It was now noon, and Sarah had spent that time wandering the city. The pain that had subsided from her head seemed to be slowly transferring itself to the foot that had been snared, making her wish for her customized Yamaha R6 sport bike. Thankfully, no one appeared to notice her shoeless state since roughly half the cat-people she saw apparently liked going barefoot. She had stayed hydrated by getting water from public fountains, but her stomach had been kicking up a constant fuss over the last hour. Sarah was still trying to figure out how in the hell she was supposed to go about getting lunch.

On a whim, Sarah stopped in front of a window that looked into a retro diner. The place was like a throwback to the 1950's, but with cat-people instead of humans. A dessert carousel stood at the far end of the counter, and Sarah gazed longingly at a giant crème puff on the top shelf.

Her stomach growled longingly, too. Sarah pressed a hand to her abdomen, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. Any money she may have had in her wallet wouldn't do her an ounce of good in this place.

As she was about to turn away, Sarah actually saw her reflection in the glass. For a moment, she stood frozen in place as her new appearance washed through her mind.

Her face was definitely cat-like, alright. The whiskers alone sold that much, though they weren't particularly long. She had deep coffee-brown fur all over while orange-gold curved stripes bedecked almost every part of her. Her long, pointed ears were brown and rimmed with orange-gold. She had six stripes on each arm and two on either side of her neck. Two thick stripes cut swathes of color through the fur on her cheeks, and her eyebrows were also the same orange-gold as her stripes. She had an orange-gold patch around her mouth and chin that ended at the corners of her shell-pink nose, and there was a stripe that covered the top of her nose and tapered to a point between her eyes.

The eye color was the only part of herself that Sarah recognized, although the eyes themselves were still alien to her: jade green with deep black vertical slits for pupils. Her eyes appeared even brighter because of the dark color of her fur and the natural black lining around them.

Her eyes were currently being hooded somewhat by her piecey bangs. Sarah's straight hair was still the same shade of brown it had been before, a bit darker than her fur was, but now it was highlighted with thick streaks of orange-gold.

Even though it was strange, it was also kind of pretty. Sarah shrugged to herself. _I could have ended up looking a lot worse, all things considered._

Sarah finally turned away to focus on her surroundings once more. There wasn't much that was different on this block other than a building with a neon-yellow sign proclaiming it as Hal's Pawn Shop. Out of habit, she tucked her thumbs into her front pants-pockets. When the sensitive pad of her thumb brushed a metal band, Sarah frowned in confusion and fished out the object with her fingers.

She found herself staring at a gold ring set with a 5-carat emerald and studded with six small diamonds. It was a ring she had owned for a year or so, but she didn't wear it very often. Sarah was struck dumb for a second before she recalled that she had worn this ring to work and slipped it into her pocket to wash her hands after lunch the day before.

Up until this very moment, Sarah had completely forgotten about it. Now her stare migrated to the pawn shop across the street, and she saw that Hal—or whoever ran the shop—dealt in high-end goods and cash. The solution to many of Sarah's problems was literally right there in front of her, painfully obvious.

Sarah clenched her fist around the ring, closed her eyes, and smacked herself in the forehead. Internally, she was berating her slackened awareness in all three foreign languages she knew as well as some choice words in English. Then she took a deep breath to calm herself, opened her eyes, and used the crosswalk to get to the pawn shop.

The little bell on the door jangled when Sarah entered the shop. It caused the gray-furred cat-person behind the counter on the right to look up from his comic book. There was a superhero of some kind on the cover.

"Welcome to Hal's Pawn Shop. I'm Hal's brother, Hank. How can I help you today?" The greeting was professional and polite.

Sarah strode up to the counter with her most winning smile and told Hank, "I'd like to sell this ring, please." She held up the ring, and Hank set down his comic book to get a closer look at it.

As he took the ring from her, he reached for something behind the counter and donned a pair of jeweler's glasses. While Hank studied the ring, he asked in a smooth bass voice, "So, why are you looking to sell this, if you don't mind me asking?"

Sarah stared blankly for half a second before replying, "I'm looking for a new place." That much was true.

"Oh, really?" Hank said, still studying the ring. He didn't sound suspicious. "New to Megakat City?"

It was a casual question, but it took all of Sarah's self-restraint not to grab the ring and bolt. "Umm, yeah. Brand new," she answered. _Fresh off the bus from another dimension, in fact_, she thought wryly.

Hank nodded and asked, "Want some friendly advice?"

Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but Sarah said, "Sure." _I'll take anything I can get, at this point._

The man—or male—finally looked at her. Even through the distortion of the glasses, his yellow eyes carried a warning. "Don't buy a place anywhere in the central districts. Anyone who lives in that area winds up seeing way more action than they bargain for. The housing is cheap for a lot of reasons, and _none_ of them are good," he said emphatically.

Sarah didn't have a clue what Hank was talking about, but his cautionary tone made her afraid to ask. Instead, she forced a smile and chirped, "Well, I never liked being in the middle of things, anyway."

That response seemed good enough for Hank, because he flashed a toothy smile at her. He removed the glasses and announced, "I can give you fifteen-hundred dollars in cash for the ring."

Sarah grimaced slightly. Desperation aside, there was no way she was walking out of this shop with only $1,500. That ring had readily fetched $5,000 from a cheating ex-boyfriend's bank account. For all of Hank's politeness, he was still a businessman.

Still, she understood well enough that this was a pawn shop. Prices weren't set in stone here, and dickering was still considered an art in some places. Hopefully, this would be one of them.

The young engineer said, "I was hoping for something closer to $3,000."

The seasoned clerk sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Sorry, I can't go that high. What do you say we go with $1,650?"

Sarah watched him carefully as she threw out her next figure. "$2,800."

Hank gave Sarah a shrewd look. "Still can't go that high. How about $1,850?"

"$2,700," she said, deadpan and unwavering.

The gray male held his hands up in a 'Let me stop you right there' gesture. "Look, I can't go any higher than $2,100 if I want to make any kind of profit on this thing. You see what I'm saying?"

Sarah had known that his ultimatum was coming sooner or later. As she looked to the side and considered the offer, a jacket hanging nearby caught Sarah's eye. She held up a finger and said, "Hold on to that figure for moment, will you?" Without waiting for an answer, she walked over to the jacket and slipped it off the hanger. It looked to be about her size, and it was clearly designed to be worn on a motorcycle. It was black leather, well-worn, soft, and supple. The inside was lined with army-green mesh-weave cotton that had been sewn up and patched multiple times. Someone had clearly loved this jacket for a long time before giving it up.

Hank saw the item in her hands and gave her a sly smile. "Liking that jacket, eh?" he asked.

In response, Sarah slid her arms into the jacket and zipped it up. It was a little long on her, but otherwise it fit like a glove. When she finished her evaluation, Sarah looked up at Hank with a satisfied smirk and answered his question. "Very much so. In fact, I'd be willing to call it $2,000 even on the ring if you include this jacket in the deal," she said with a note of confidence in her voice.

To his credit, Hank at least pretended to think it over hard before flashing another one of his grins at her. "Deal," he proclaimed.

He held out his paw, and Sarah walked up and shook it.

Thirty minutes and an order of chicken fingers later, Sarah sat on one of the revolving stools in the diner enjoying her fudge-drizzled giant crème puff one delectable spoonful at a time.

* * *

After picking up any necessities at a convenience store, Sarah purchased a newspaper from a local newsstand and ventured into the cleverly-named Wired Up internet café. As soon as she had walked in, she had ordered a large cup of black coffee from the menu above the counter and took possession of a computer near the back corner. Sarah set up a free online email account while she waited for her coffee. When that was done, she flipped to the local advertisement section, pulled up a digital map of the city, and began combing through the housing and work ads.

It was getting late in the evening. Sarah had sat in front of a desktop computer for the last few hours and was on her third cup of coffee for the evening. It was considerably awkward to suddenly be typing with eight fingers instead of ten, but Sarah pulled it off once she got a little practice. Despite all that effort, she was still nowhere close to finding somewhere remotely suitable to live. It turned out that the only places she could currently afford in Megakat City were mostly in the central districts; the one place she had been warned off of.

Go freaking figure.

Sarah stole a glance at the window only to see that the sunlight was slowly disappearing. Another glance at the clock told the young engineer that it was almost 7:00.

_Damn it, I'm not going to be able to do much else tonight,_ she thought, trying to stifle a sudden urge to yawn. Deciding to call it a day, Sarah searched for a nearby motel and shut off the computer once she had written down the address on a piece of scrap paper. After stuffing her various notes and papers into her new orange backpack, Sarah drained the last of her coffee and paid at the counter before exiting.

The motel was only two blocks away, but Sarah still didn't feel terribly comfortable walking there now that the sky was turning dark and the street was mostly empty. However, nightfall brought out another surprising development for Sarah.

She had used night-vision a couple times before while playing paintball one weekend with some college friends, but it was nothing compared to what her eyes were doing now. Everything that should have been encased in shadow was clearly visible to her and highlighted in golden green. It was an interesting effect, and while a few of the colors weren't as vivid as before, Sarah was amazed at just how many details she could make out. It was almost like her own eyes had become self-luminescent, opening up a whole different realm of sensation to her. Even as tired as she was, Sarah couldn't help but stare at everything around her like she had earlier that day.

She was still a full block away from the motel when she heard something to make her ear twitch, but Sarah still wasn't used to the heightened senses. She wasn't paying enough attention to recognize the sound of running footsteps until they were right behind her.

Reflexively, she spun around, but something had already grabbed her shoulders and roughly yanked her off her feet.

* * *

After T-Bone and Razor had unloaded the Turbokat, they hadn't had time to really examine the damaged robotics. As soon as they had changed out of their g-suits, their normal work-a-day lives had kicked up a fresh wave of drudgery.

T-Bone and Razor, now Chance Furlong and Jake Clawson, had wound up spending most of their day dealing with busted radiators and a gummed-up valve system. That had been a nightmare. Now the two toms were just content to drop off the custom parts Jake had made and get some dinner.

They were on their way out the door of the motorcycle shop that had commissioned the parts when Chance asked, "Hey, Jake, what do you feel like eating?"

The cinnamon-furred tom looked over to his partner and shrugged. "I'm not sure," he answered. "How about you?"

Chance thought it over for a second as he leaned his hands on their tow-truck. "I'm craving some beef," the tabby proclaimed before asking, "Wanna do cheeseburgers, buddy?"

Jake couldn't help but smirk at his friend's hopeful expression. There weren't many decent burger joints open this late, but then one place actually did come to mind. "You know, I think Olly's is still open. We could go there," Jake suggested.

Chance's resulting grin was answer enough. They were about to climb into the truck when a scream rang out.

"NOOO! HELP MEEE!"

Both toms snapped their heads towards the sound. It was a she-kat screaming, and she sounded like she was just around the corner from where Jake and Chance stood.

The two partners wasted no time and sprinted for the source of the scream.

* * *

"HELP MEEE!" Sarah screamed like a banshee, praying for someone to hear her.

Whoever had grabbed her first was holding her up by the straps of her backpack. That person had apparently brought along a buddy, because Sarah was abruptly picked up by her ankles as well. Every worst case scenario had rushed through her mind in that second, so she lashed out with everything she had while still holding on to her backpack. Adrenaline was making everything vividly clear.

The thug behind her grunted something unintelligible, but Sarah just kept kicking and screaming. The guy behind her suddenly yelled, "Let go of the bag, lady!"

In that instant, with two thugs playing tug-o'-war with her body, something in Sarah snapped. Her fear and anger were doused with liquid nitrogen and were replaced with a hyper-awareness she had never experienced before.

In a cold, intense voice, Sarah snapped, "No! _You_ let go of _me_!" She released one strap of her backpack to slash at the air behind her with her claws. They connected with something soft then tore through something harder with a wet ripping noise. The guy behind her howled in pain and let her drop to the pavement. Sarah's landing was cushioned by her backpack, and she used her new leverage to aim a solid kick at the other guy's chest. Even in her bare feet, it caused the breath to _whoosh_ out of him.

The second her feet were loose, Sarah scrambled into a run down the street. Her sense of direction was whacked, but she didn't care. Right now, she just wanted to get as far away from here as quick as she could.

However, it wasn't going to be that easy.

As soon as Sarah passed the next alley, she found her path blocked by five more kats. By the looks of them in their dark-red hoodies, they were part of the same gang as the two toms she was trying to escape. Sarah halted her retreat and began backing up. As the five toms flanked her, she realized too late that she had backed herself into a dead-end alley.

Sarah retreated even further into the alley, breathing hard. As she tried to formulate a way out, her bare foot nudged something metallic. Looking down, she saw a two-foot-long metal pipe. Immediately, she picked it up, brandishing it like a baseball bat before the five toms in front of her.

Sarah then growled—actually_ growled_, like an animal—at the gangsters in front of her. The sound emanated low in her throat and rumbled up through her bared fangs. She glared defiantly as the gangsters paused at the mouth of the alley. At this point, she had already lost most everything that mattered to her. There was no way she was going down now without a fight.

"Who wants some?" she taunted in a low voice. "Huh? Who's up for a world of hurt?" Sarah was beyond any and all hope of victory, but she would be damned if she let these punks off easy.

All of a sudden, two shadows appeared behind the five gangsters trapping her in the alley. Faster than she could blink, the newcomers had knocked three of the five gangsters out cold on the pavement with some choice punches and a couple of roundhouse kicks. At the end of it, each one was holding a struggling punk by the scruff of the neck.

"Sounds like fun. Mind if we crash the party?" asked the taller one in a deep voice.

An unseen signal passed between the two newcomers, and they threw their captives into a synchronized head-butt. It knocked the last two gangsters out cold, and they crumpled to the pavement.

Sarah stood staring at her would-be saviors for a good long minute before she finally lowered the pipe. It was another moment before she could speak coherently, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Wow, that was fast."

The smaller one seemed to smirk and spoke up, "Thanks. We aim to impress." The larger one flexes his muscular arms as if in emphasis.

Sarah drops the pipe and steps forward to the mouth of the alley. She's still blinking in shock as she replies, "It's me who should be thanking you two right now, so…thanks for saving my ass."

"Yeah, well," the larger one says, "five against one seemed like pretty stiff odds." In the glow of the streetlight, Sarah is able to make out the brown stripes on his cream-colored fur.

The smaller one, who has cinnamon fur, interjects, "Not to say anything against your abilities, that is." He cast a glance towards the corner where Sarah had been attacked and added, "The two you handled certainly don't look like they're going to be bothering anyone for a while."

The praise actually made Sarah blush slightly.

The larger of the two spoke up again. "We were just about to take off when we heard you screaming, so we came to investigate." Then he grinned and said, "You looked ready to kick some tail." There was almost an undercurrent of admiration in the tom's tone.

Sarah smiled brightly at her two rescuers, then she realizes something and mentally kicks herself for it. "Despite all of this, where are my manners?" she asks rhetorically. As she hold out a paw to the two toms, she introduces herself. "My name is Sarah Majkowski. What are yours?"

The smaller, cinnamon-furred one takes it first and answers, "My name is Jake Clawson." He points a thumb at his friend and continues, "This is my buddy, Chance Furlong."

Chance takes Sarah's hand in a gentle grip and shakes it lightly. "Pleased to meet you, Sarah," he says politely.

Sarah finds herself unconsciously smiling at the two males as she says to them, "The pleasure's all mine, Jake and Chance."

**(Okay, so that is Chapter 3. If you find anything desperately wrong with the last one-and-a-half sections, please keep in mind that I typed it while nursing a ****_very_**** good buzz and tell me in a review so I can fix it in the near future. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this installment. If I haven't done this before, my thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and faved thus far. I hope you keep enjoying the story and stick around for the next part which should be relatively soon.**

**Edit: Went back and made some tweaks. Just a couple details, but they were seriously bugging me.)**


End file.
